Look What's in Our Backyard! An Arboretum!

Spring has sprung in Western Washington and off we go to learn more about the flora and fauna of our beautiful state--a perfect way to kick off our study of botany. As the teacher of the Navigators, it was an education for me in that the kids already knew most of the basic scientific terms and systems. I can  tell we are going to have some great learning taking place as we continue to explore 

the wonderful, abundant plant world around us!

Ms Lisa welcomes us to the arboretum at the 

University of Washington Botanic Gardens 

by teaching us some Latin. 

Be a beginning botanist: Look, Listen,

Hear, Smell, Record and Enjoy! 

We go on a scavenger hunt and look for

producers, consumers and decomposers.

We then look for the main trees of Western Washington 

and play a game similar to Rock Paper Scissors:

the Douglas Fir, tall and straight

The Western Red Cedar with J-shaped branches

The Western Hemlock with a bent over top

We then play a game of photosynthesis. Organized chaos at its best!

We learn about how Native Americans used cedar trees
for making many things including mats, baskets,...

 

...and fishing hooks!

Taking advantage of Washington's early spring, we go on a flower hunt. 

We make sure we take a close up look and see all the parts of the flower... 

...and then, using a paintbrush, we help the bees pollinate the flowers.

We end with a resounding YES to all the things 

we learned and experienced at the arboretum. 

Here are 9 various "trees" after our field trip was over. 

Now that we're botanists, we'll always be on the lookout (and smellout and hearout) for interesting things to be found in our great outdoors!